


best person here changed the group chat name to lets get felix out of his damn room come on chan its been a month

by onceagainoncemore



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Friends to Lovers, M/M, almost a text fic, chan n felix are cousins btw, is this slowburn? maybe, its ooc im sorry, might not be updated anytime soon lads, wow changbin tries to be emo but hes really soft n awkward sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-04-17 06:45:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14183193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onceagainoncemore/pseuds/onceagainoncemore
Summary: A focus on the four years Felix spends in a Korean high school.





	1. Year One

**Author's Note:**

> hi! welcome to my first fic posted here, as well as my first sk fic!!! im unashamed to admit this is entirely inspired by @felixiar's stray gays. check that fic out, its so good!!!
> 
> firstly, to clarify: this is set in an australian private high school. this means the grades are separated by year of birth (aka everyone born in '00 is in the same grade, everyone in '99 is in the same grade etc) but still set around the half year school year i think Korea has. so starts in summer ( june?) takes the winter break in december, and finishes around summer.  
> everyone is in high school for year 1, as australian private high school goes from grade seven (12-13 year olds) to grade twelve (17-18 year olds). university, which chan/woojin/maybe minho will talk about later is what americans call college.
> 
> everyones grades are:  
> 97 – 17/18, year 12  
> 98 – 16/17, year 11  
> 99 – 15/16, year 10  
> 00 – 14/15, year 9  
> 01 – 13/14, year 8
> 
>  
> 
> im not how long this will go for, but i hope i can finish it. enjoy!!

**Group chat: disrespectful good for nothing hyungs except for woojin i love yo**

**members: tired, ji ji ji, mum, binnie binnie, worldwide, pure, a child, minhoe**

**tired:** hi im going to be late today

 **tired:** apparently felix needs to be shown around or something whoops

 

 **ji ji ji:** chan

 **ji ji ji:** did u actually forget that your foreign buddy needed to be shown around the school

 **ji ji ji:** and that he cant be shown around by anyone else bc a) ur his cousin b) he doesn’t speak korean and c) he doesn’t speak korean

 

 **tired:** shut up jisung

 

**tired added _Felix_ to the group chat**

**ji ji ji changed _tired_ ’s name to _bad dad_**

****

**bad dad:** shut up jisung

 

 

 

 

Felix has never actually seen his cousin wake up in the mornings. Their families never did sleepovers or anything where learning Chan’s morning habits would become a thing Felix would need to do.

Chan is an actual mess.

Felix had been woken up by his aunt about half an hour ago, and had already showered and gotten dressed in his uncomfortable brand new school uniform, as well as start his breakfast. Chan had just woken up, and was rushing all about the house trying to find his things.

“Chris.” Felix says, and remembers that’s not how he’s supposed to call Chan anymore. “Chan-hyung-“

He also can’t remember how to put the rest of that sentence in Korean.

“I thought you said you had everything ready last night.” Felix says, in English, as Chan runs into the kitchen, stealing some undercooked toast from him. Chan nods, then shakes his head.

“I had everything ready for me,” Chan replies, thankfully also in English. “But I forgot I have to show you around the school, tell you translations for things you probably should know, and warn your teachers you don’t speak a lick of Korean, and make sure your timetable is all filled out, and-“

“Gotcha.” Felix cuts him off. “And I can say some stuff. I’m not useless.”

“Uh-huh.” Chan waves him off. “Grab your bag. We gotta go now.”

 

The school is big. It’s bigger than the high school Felix had being going to in Australia. Felix lets out a heavy sigh when Chan gives him the map. An entire A-4 piece of paper, covered in a birds-eye view of the school.

“The back has information on where stuff is for grade nines.” Chan says, before switching back to Korean and explaining something to the office lady. Felix checks the back, and silently groans about his parents not moving over when Chan’s did.

Chan whispers a ‘don’t worry,’ at him as he hands over an armful of books, as well as a lock.

“Let’s find your locker bay, eh?” Chan rushes off to the opposite end of the school, and Felix runs after him. “You only missed the first day of school. There should be a spot for you to put your books. Then we’ll get your timetable, I’ll walk you to your class, and I’ll show you around at break.”

“You seem stressed.” Felix comments.

“No shit Sherlock,” Chan says, before taking the books off Felix. They had arrived at a locker bay. Chan finds the first free locker and swings it open. He takes an exercise book, a binder, and a pen out of the packaging. Felix slings his bag off and puts it in there too, and Chan locks it. “I’ll teach you the combo later. God, there’s so much to do with you,”

“Timetable.” Felix supplies.

“Right.” Chan has a lot of energy for someone that probably didn’t sleep at all. He sprints up the stairs next to the locker bay and Felix follows, although a lot calmer. Once he’s up the stairs, Chan is already badgering at a teacher.

After a little of what sounds like arguing, Chan gets the teacher to print out his timetable. Chan reads it out loud, in English, as he hurries Felix to his first class.

“They put you in an English class,” Chan mutters.

“Let me have this one thing, Chris.”

“Chan.” He gets corrected, and Felix laughs a little. “I’ll get you into a beginner’s Korean or something that they’re holding for our exchange students.”

They arrive at the classroom.

“Good luck.” Chan says, and pats his shoulders. “I’m praying you know how to introduce yourself.”

“I’m not useless.” Felix whines. Chan laughs as he runs off, waving. Felix waves back, the nerves only hitting him now. He mutters some encouragement to himself.

He opens the door. The teacher welcomes him, and he pretends he knows what she’s saying to the class. He introduces himself, probably butchering some part of the sentence, and sits down at the only empty seat.

 

Chan did not show up after his class.

Felix assumes it is because Chan’s own classroom was on the other side of the campus or something, considering the last time Felix saw him he was running down the hallway. Felix does remember how to get to his locker bay, but once he’s there, he realizes he hasn’t actually learnt his locker combo yet.

“My wallet is in there, you little-“ Felix mutters. Everyone else moves from the lockers rather fast, and he’s left standing alone.

He waits for a little.

He can hear footsteps echoing through the hall. He turns. It’s not Chan, but the guy appears to be waving at him.

“You’re Felix, right?” the guy asks, in English, once he’s finished hacking his lungs out after his run to him. Felix nods. “Good, good. Chan forgot about you, sorry. I’m one of his friends, Jisung. I’ll take you to where he’s stressing out.”

“Why didn’t he just come to get me?” Felix asks as Jisung starts running again. Jisung shrugs. It’s awkward running with books, Felix thinks. The uniform is slightly less annoying now that he’s used to it, though.

Jisung stops at what looks like a cafeteria, and makes his way through the crowd, dragging Felix by the arm to where Chan is sitting. Jisung says something in Korean, and Chan looks up.

“Felix, Felix, I’m so sorry-“ Chan groans.

“Woojin doesn’t let him run around the school when he’s had coffee.” Someone pipes up, in English. Do all these people know English? “Sorry.”

Felix sits down, where Chan is petting the seat, and whispers a hello to them. He hugs his books a little self-consciously. He’s not shy, but damn if a language barrier doesn’t change your personality. Everyone says hello back. Chan stands up and walks around the table, saying the person’s name as he taps his head. There was five of them in total, not counting Chan and Felix. Five was a good number. Felix could probably remember five people’s names.

The group continues their conversation in Korean, and Felix tries desperately to translate a few of the words. He gets a couple. Chan asks something, and one of the boys – Hyunjin, maybe? – puts his hand up.

“There we go, Felix. Hyunjin will show you around.” Chan says.

“I still need my locker combo.” Felix replies, and Chan swears. He digs around in his pockets for a while, and dumps a pile of crumpled paper in Felix’s hand. Chan looks through them, and holds up a strip of paper.

“This should be it.” Felix throws the rest of the paper at Chan, and goes back to pretending he knows what everyone is talking about.

 

It only takes about thirty tries for Felix to open his locker. He almost asks Hyunjin what subject they were going to in case the books were named, but he doesn’t. He’s not quite sure how to phrase the question.

He grabs a random exercise book and follows Hyunjin.

 

Once lunch comes around Chan does show up, and leads Felix around the school. It’s big. The signs are all in Korean. Felix feels more ‘probably should’ve started studying Korean last year when your mother told you you were moving to Korea to get your citizenship’ guilty feels.

He meets the group again once Chan has finished running him through where he needs to go, and finds two more people at the table. Felix smiles at the two new people, although he’s awkwardly cringing on the inside. More names to learn. Brilliant.

“Ah.” Chan says, when one of the newcomers hit him on the shoulders. “Changbin, Minho, this is Felix.”

Felix is kind of proud of himself for understanding all of that, even if it was a short sentence. And mostly filled with names. Hey, he got something, alright?

Minho waves and Felix waves back. Felix has a vague feeling from the way Changbin is glaring at him that he’s just met the resident emo. He keeps his smile on, however, and Changbin eventually gives up and waves as well.

That’s what I thought, Felix mutters to himself. He’s been told he has a very contagious smile.

 

Chan walks home from school for reasons unknown.

“You have a bus card,” Felix groans. It wasn’t hilly, but it also wasn’t a walk in the park to get back to Chan’s house. Or maybe it was his house now as well. Their house. Whatever. It took forever for the bus to get to the school in the mornings, and probably took longer during the after school rush, but it would be better than walking, surely.

“You’ve got to get your daily exercise somehow, Felix.” Chan says. He’s a couple steps in front of Felix, and Felix knows if he wasn’t here, Chan probably would already be home. “Walking home is just easier than doing eight minute ab workouts.”

“Is it, though?” Felix asks, and doesn’t get a response. He trudges on for a little more, and almost passes the house. Chan looks around them, like he was looking for someone, and goes and knocks on the door. His aunt opens the door. She presses a kiss to Chan’s forehead and his, and runs off.

“She’s going to the supermarket, probably.” Chan clarifies as he takes his shoes off. Felix takes his off as well, and places his bag down. Chan practically throws his as he heads to the kitchen.

There’s a knock on the door. Felix doesn’t answer it. He lets Chan sock-slide through the kitchen and jog to the front door. Damn, does Chan have the sort of Unlimited I’m On A Sugar High 24/7 energy that kids own?

All seven people Felix met today squeeze through the door. Felix isn’t really in the mood for conversations he can neither participate in nor understand, so he enters his room. Time for studying.

“Should’ve start sooner,” He mutters. “Should’ve started sooner.”

“Better late than never!” He hears Chan yell through the door. He considers yelling back, but there’s also Chan’s friends out there. He should be polite.

 

Felix leaves his room just as most of Chan’s friends leave. He waves goodbye to them. One, the one with braces and sporting the cutest smile Felix has ever seen gives him a high five, and Felix feels his heart burst slightly. He was a sucker for cute people.

The only one left in the living room is the emo one. He nods to Changbin, who doesn’t notice him. He curls up on the end of the couch and flicks through the channels. He won’t actually watch something until Chan comes back from saying goodbye to his friends so he can ask for translations.

Chan comes back and steals the remote. He settles on some game show, and Felix relaxes. He didn’t actually mind not knowing Korean just yet. He liked letting the language wash over him without him having to be distracted by actually knowing what they were saying.

It’s almost dark when Changbin finally stands up and said his goodbyes. His aunt had already come home and dinner was in the process of being cooked. Neither Chan nor his aunt questioned why Changbin had stayed so late, so Felix doesn’t either.

He eats dinner and goes back to trying to learn sentence structure. He could ask Chan for help, but he was rather stressed this morning. Felix decides not to bother him.

 

**Group chat: disrespectful good for nothing hyungs except for woojin i love you woo**

**members: bad dad, ji ji ji, mum, binnie binnie, worldwide, pure, a child, minhoe, Felix**

**ji ji ji changed their name to _the fun one_**

**the fun one changed _binnie binnie’_ s name to _the not fun one_**

****

**the not fun one:** what did i ever do to you

 

 **the fun one:** welcome felix!!!!!! im sorry i didn’t notice you joined before :(((

 

 **Felix:** uh hi

 

 **the fun one:** :))))

 

**the fun one changed _Felix_ ’s name to _oi oi oi_**

**the fun one changed _bad dad_ ’s name to _aussie aussie aussie_**

**aussie aussie aussie:** you couldnt even change our names in order

 

 **mum:** At least you are no longer a bad parent, Chan

 

“Your friends are weird,” Felix says once Chan has woken up and he’s google translated everything that had been sent to the group chat. Chan nods.

“Get used to it.”

“Do we need to go early again?” Felix asks, as Chan bumbles around the house like he did yesterday. Felix was tired. He wanted to rest. Maybe listening and not understanding Korean was relaxing at night when he could just go to sleep but six hours of listening to it might not be.

“Yeah. Gotta switch you into the beginner’s class. I hope they have one this year. If not I can probably get you into something like a study line where you can, well, study.” Chan shouts from his room. “Also, I think I should probably tell your teachers you don’t understand them. I forgot about that.”

“We get it, you’re a bad parent.” Felix says, and Chan sticks his head out of his room to smack his forehead.

“Never should’ve added you to that damn chat,” He hears Chan whisper.

 

Chan does remember to get Felix’s timetable fixed. He now has a beginner’s Korean class with the school’s exchange student three days a week, in the mornings. Chan almost forgets to explain to the teachers about Felix’s mild language barrier, but lucky enough, Felix does not forget these things.

“You’re all set.” Chan says. He nods, pets Felix’s shoulder, and runs off. Felix takes out his phone to send a message to the group chat maybe asking why Chan was always running around but he decides against it. He messages Chan himself, who responds with a ‘ **daily exercise!** ’

The books are, fortunately, unnamed, so it doesn’t really matter if Felix just grabs random books until he’s run out of them. Hyunjin shows up just after the bell, and takes him to the library. He gets a textbook and he looks through it as the two of them walk to class.

Ah, maths. Finally, something Felix might actually be able to understand.

 

The end of the day comes quicker that what Felix expected.

Before he knows it, he’s walking home with Chan. It’s less hot than yesterday, which makes the walk almost pleasant.

It’s a ridiculous unnecessary walk, but Felix understands why Chan does it now. Somewhat.

He still complains, though.

 

A couple weeks pass without Felix even realizing.

He’s not incredibly close to Chan’s friends. He still doesn’t join in on conversations if he’s not invited due to his lack of vocabulary, and he doesn’t go out to meet the on the weekends like Chan does. He really needs to get the Korean basics down, so he doesn’t have to worry about whether or not the sentence he just said makes any damn sense.

Jisung is probably the one he’s bonded to the most. It helped that Jisung, as well as being naturally charismatic, was fluent in English.

Jisung was also the one pestering him to go out to lunch with the group.

“Come on, Felix.” He hears Jisung groan. “For me, please? Your favourite?”

“Who said you were my favourite?” Felix was planning to go down the route of ‘I can’t understand what you’re saying sorry language barrier’ but seeing Jisung’s joke-offended face made up for him breaking his own promise.

“Who do you like better than me?” Jisung says, holding tight to his expression. Felix blinks slowly, then points at Jeongin. Jisung stares at the younger boy, and shrugs. “Ok, yeah. Understandable. I’ll forgive you.”

Jeongin looks up to see them both staring at him, and holds up his phone to see if he had anything in his braces. Jisung coos and pinches his cheeks.

“So will you?” Jisung says, once Jeongin has hit him enough times to get the older boy to let go of him.

“I’ll think about it.” He won’t. He likes everyone, sure, but he doesn’t really know them and they don’t know him either.

“Come.” Changbin says. Felix turns to him. Changbin hadn’t even looked up from his homework. Was he actually talking to him, or? “You’re not going to get to know everyone if you don’t talk to them.”

Felix freezes. He’s not sure if Changbin has ever actually talked to him yet.

“I’ll think about it.” He repeats, because he’s not sure what else to say. Changbin looks at him, briefly, then goes back to whatever he’s doing. Felix nods, and twists back to face Jisung. He has no idea what he’s doing. “Are you guys coming over to study tonight?”

“Nah.” Jisung sighs. “I’m taking care of my baby sister with Minho. The others, because they truly love me so much that they just can’t meet up without me, have decided not to come either.”

“Language barrier.” Felix says, because even though he does know what Jisung had said, he doesn’t think he deserves that satisfaction. Jisung pouts.

“You’re no fun.” Jisung moans, and Felix smiles.

 

**Group chat: OG**

**members: father, mother, emocean, best person here, worldwide, changbin’s favourite, minhoe, everyone’s favourite**

**best person here changed the group chat name to _lets get felix out of his damn room come on chan its been a month_**

**father:** Why is it my fault Felix never wants to see you guys

 

 **best person here:** you could. you know. drag him out to meet us????? or at least get him to study with us????

 **best person here:** chan

 **best person here:** he doesnt like us does he

 

**worldwide changed _best person here’_ s name to _shut tf up jisung_**

**father:** I’m pretty sure he likes you guys

 

 **shut tf up jisung:** a) im never gonna shut up hyunjinnie you should know this

 **shut tf up jisung:** b) “”””””pretty sure””””””

 **shut tf up jisung:** c) he never wants to see us :(( I bet if he wasn’t dependant on you he wouldnt even talk to us at lunch

 

 **worldwide:** i dont think ive ever agreed with jisung on something but it does kinda seem like he doesn’t like us chan

 

 **father:** Fine. Fine I’ll get him to come to lunch this week if you don’t ask me to pay for all of you

 

 **shut tf up jisung:** can do, dad

 

“Get dressed.” Chan says, barging into Felix’s room.

“It’s three am,” Felix groans, because the last time he checked the clock it had been.

“It’s eleven. We’re going out and meeting up with my friends.” Chan says, and throws on of the pillows that had fallen off Felix’s bed at his head. Felix raises himself up just to flop back down. “Come on. Let’s go.”

“Do I have to?” He drags out, but he rolls out of bed anyway. He half-heartedly kicks at Chan’s shins. “Why do I have to go?”

“Come on.” Chan repeats, and hold a hand out to help Felix stand up. He takes it, but makes Chan pull his full weight up. Chan sighs, and Felix laughs a little. “Get dressed, come on. We’re leaving soon.”

Felix starts to rummage through his collection of jeans, but not before glaring at Chan. Chan rolls his eyes before leaving.

 

Felix has a feeling it’s Jisung who convinced Chan to drag him out here. He’s sporting a very proud, almost evil grin, and that grin grows wider when he sees Felix. He jumps and waves them over to where the rest of them are standing.

“Hello,” Felix says, a little awkwardly. Everyone else says their ‘hellos’ and Felix is reminded as to why didn’t want to come in the first place. He’s a social butterfly but really, barely understanding the language you’re speaking in and no one actually speaking to you was rough.

Most of the group enters the café, chattering amongst themselves. Only Changbin stood there with Felix.

“Don’t beat yourself up too much,” The older boy mutters quietly. He follows his friends, and Felix is left standing there alone.

“What.” He says out loud, in English. “What was that.”

 

“What do you think of them?” Chan asks as they walk home, as if Felix has just seen his friends for the first time. Felix shrugs. They were loud, which Felix expected from a group of nine teenagers strong. He’s reasonable sure half of them forgot he existed, which was cool with him. Just having Jisung annoy him was enough.

“Loud.” He says after a while.

“You can talk to them, you know.” Chan says. “They’re all worried you don’t like them.”

Felix scoffs, a little.

“Just say stuff, alright? You aren’t going to improve if you don’t speak.” As if to prove a point, Chan switches to Korean.

“I’m going to be claiming language barrier as long as possible, Chris.” Chan sighs. They walk the rest of the way home in silence. It was a little weird, considering conversation usually flowed quite easily between them.

 

**Group chat: disrespectful good for nothing hyungs except for woojin I love you woo**

**members: aussie aussie aussie, the fun one, the not fun one, mum, worldwide, pure, a child, minho, oi oi oi**

**the fun one changed the group chat’s name to _youre all snakes_**

****

**oi oi oi:**..

 **oi oi oi:** may i ask why

 

 **the fun one:** wEll you see,

 **the fun one:** that snake you call a cousin exposed me in front of the whole school today

 

 **aussie aussie aussie:** I just asked you if you had a crush, Jisungie.

 

 **the fun one:** dont u ‘jisungie’ me.

 **the fun one:** i know you purposely said it in front of my crush

 **the fun one:** l o u d l y,

 

 **aussie aussie aussie:** Felix.

 

 **oi oi oi:** yes

 

 **aussie aussie aussie:** You were sitting next to Jisung. How much of the crush conversation did you hear

 

 **oi oi oi:** honestly this is the first of heard of him having a crush

**aussie aussie aussie:** There we go. He almost certainly didn’t hear you, Jisung.

 

 **the fun one:** shut up im never talking to you again i hate this family


	2. Year One, Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey!!! i'd just quickly like to thank everyone that has commented/kudos'd/viewed this you've actually made my week, all of you. thank you so so so much!
> 
> thing i think might need to be clarified:  
> the hyung line is referred to as 'senior' students, even though changbin is still gr10 (not the last two years of high school, which is when you are called seniors). this is because grade ten is when you either apply for colleges (yr11-12) outside of the school you are at or at the school. because you can leave the school at grade ten and still graduate from there, as 11-12 you are technically going to a college not a high school, they are referred to as seniors. i hope this makes sense!

“Are you.” Felix says, as he watches Chan scramble around the house as if it’s a Monday morning. The thing is, it’s a Saturday afternoon. “Are you going on a date or something?”

“I’m just going to lunch with Woojin.” Chan says, as he passes the same spot in front of the TV for the seventh time. Felix sighs.

“What are you looking for?” Maybe if he helps Chan find his missing shorts or hairbrush or whatever his cousin was stressing out about he could go back to trying to understand the weird dating show he was watching. Chan just huffs, and gestures to just about everything around them. “Uh huh. Helpful.”

Chan, because he’s annoying, switches to Korean to rant something quickly. Felix catches none of it, and sticks his tongue out.

“Just. Just help me find my damn sweater.” Chan admits, finally. “The blue one.”

“It’s- we’re still in the warm part of autumn. It’s still pretty much summer.”

“Felix.”

“Gotcha, hyung.” He stands up, and walks around the living room, echoing how Chan had been looking for the jumper earlier. Chan hits him, somewhat gently, and Felix cackles. He jogs off to Chan’s room, and finds the sweater hanging off the end of Chan’s bed. He grabs it and throws it at Chan, who gives his bedroom door a dirty look.

“I swear it wasn’t there before.”

“Just finish getting ready for your date,” Felix groans, and shoves Chan towards the bathroom. Chan yells something about it not being a date, before ducking into the bathroom to fix his hair. Felix goes and curls back on the couch.

 

**Group chat: youre all snakes**

**Members: aussie aussie aussie, the fun one, the not fun one, mum, worldwide, pure, a child, minhoe, oi oi oi**

**a child:** how was the date

 

 **aussie aussie aussie:** im grounding you you can no longer talk to jisung ever again

 

 **the fun one:** chan went on a date

 **the fun one:** since when

 **the fun one:** with who

 **the fun one:** why didnt i know about this

 

 **worldwide:** lmao

 

 **aussie aussie aussie:** Jinnie

 **aussie aussie aussie:** I trusted you.

 

 **mum:** The date was good, Jeongin!

 

 **worldwide:** #exposed

 

Felix’s drink bottle is empty.

He doesn’t normally go outside of his room when Chan’s friends are over, but he really is thirsty, and he wants to do pronunciation practice – he can’t pronounce anything, really. Some grade seven made fun of how he said his r’s. A grade seven. Someone who still slurred like a kid. -, so he grabs the drink bottle and heads off to the kitchen to fill it up.

As he’s filling it up, he hears Chan say his name. He puts the drink bottle down, sighing, and shuffles to the living room.

Chan nods at him, and hands a worksheet to Seungmin.

“Ask Felix.” He says, to Seungmin. He turns to Felix. “Maths.”

He sits down next to Chan, steals a pencil and makes grabby hands at the piece of paper. Seungmin gives him a slightly confused look, then gives the worksheet over. Seungmin moves so he’s sitting on the other side of Felix, as if Felix is actually going to talk about what he’s doing.

Felix quickly goes through the first question, using as little steps as possible. He looks at Seungmin, and back to the paper. He starts to do what his old teacher used to do – explain how she got to the end of a problem without using words. He runs through the question again, but with about a million new steps.

Once he’s finished, he hands the worksheet back to Seungmin. Seungmin reads over it, mouthing the numbers.

“Thanks.” He says.

Felix just nods. He chucks the pencil at Chan’s head, and heads off to get his drink bottle. Someone grabs at his ankle.

“Stay,” Jisung moans. “We’re just about to finish.”

“Yeah, Felix-hyung!” He hears Jeongin say. He shakes Jisung off his ankle and turns back around to see Jeongin carrying three boxes of monopoly. “Stay and play with us, please!”

He scratches his neck. He looks at Chan.

“Why do you own three boxes of monopoly?” He asks, as he sits back down. Jeongin cheers. Chan shrugs.

“Twenty-first century kids here!” Jisung says, passing one of the boxes over to Minho. The third box gets thrown somewhere in the middle of the two groups, with the only the money taken out of it. “We’ll let the elders have the smaller group.”

 

Seungmin gets out first. Then Jisung, and then Jeongin. Hyunjin and Felix are the last two playing, and soon enough, they’re the last two out of everyone. The elders, it seemed, were very good at becoming bankrupt.

Hyunjin wins.

 

Changbin stays late, like he normally does when Chan’s friends stay over for their studying session. Jisung also stays over tonight, and just about begs Felix’s aunt to let him and Changbin stay for dinner.

Felix and Chan watch the begging, laughing quietly. Jisung looks about ready to drop to his knees. His aunt gives them a look, and mouths ‘I already said yes,’ in English to them. Felix laughs a little harder.

Changbin hands Felix his drink bottle, and starts to head off for Chan’s room.

“Oh, thanks Changbin-ssi.” Felix says, smiling. Changbin turns to him, and frowns slightly.

“Hyung. You call everyone else that.”

“Thanks, Changbin-hyung.” He says, a little awkwardly. Changbin nods, and leaves to drag Jisung away from Felix’s aunt. Chan, who was oddly silent during that awkward exchange, laughs suddenly.

“Wow.” Chan says, after he’s finished laughing. “That sure was something.”

 

“What’s this?” Jisung asks, as he rummages through the cupboard. How is he still hungry? Felix did not realize Jisung could eat that much until the food on his own dinner plate had been threatened. Jisung is holding a jar, and making disgusted faces at the ingredients list. Felix enters the kitchen, and steals the jar.

“Vegemite.” He says, in English. “I don’t-I don’t know if there’s a translation for that. I- Chan-hyung!”

Chan appears, with Changbin following.

“Is there a translation for this?” Jisung says, stealing the jar back and shoving it in Chan’s face.

“I.” Chan stops, and thinks. “I think it’s like your name, Felix. You just say it with a Korean accent. Vegemite.”

“Yeah, okay, I’m not going to do that.” Felix says, and turns back to Jisung. He switches back to English. “You’re fluent anyway. What was I thinking? Anyway, you’ve been friends with Chan for how long now?”

“Uh, six years?” Jisung says.

“And you’ve never had vegemite.”

“No.”

“Yeast spread!” Chan almost yells, in Korean. Felix and Jisung turn to give him a dirty look. “I think mum calls it yeast spread.”

“Why do you eat yeast spread in Australia, Felix.” Jisung says, scrunching his nose up. “Why.”

“It’s good, okay?” Felix says, and grabs the bread out of the cupboard. He puts a single slice in the toaster. Chan realizes what he’s doing and puts another slice in as well. Felix gets the butter out of the fridge, and Chan gets a knife.

The toast pops, and Felix ignores Jisung’s complaints about it being undercooked. Chan does the spreading, and cuts the two pieces in half. He hands a piece to everyone. Felix takes his half, and motions for Jisung to eat it. With a grimace, Jisung does.

“It’s alright.” Changbin says.

“Yeast spread.” Jisung grumbles, after a little while. He’s already finished his half, however.

“You liked it,” Chan says victoriously, through his piece of toast. Jisung disagrees, but he reaches for the bag of bread again.

 

**Group chat: youre all snakes**

**Members: aussie aussie aussie, the fun one, the not fun one, mum, worldwide, pure, a child, minhoe, oi oi oi**

**the fun one changed their name to _happy birthday!!!_**

**happy birthday!!!:** come congratulate me

 

“Happy birthday,” Felix says as Jisung crowds him into a hug. Jisung beckons him inside. This was the first time Felix had actually been to someone else’s house, and he wasn’t actually planning on coming (Jisung could wait until Monday to be congratulated, surely) but Jisung had insisted, and after a little, Chan insisted as well.

So. Here he was.

Seungmin and Hyunjin were already there, leaning against each other to study what looked like a recipe. Seungmin waves, without looking up.

He sits down, near the two.

Jisung lets in the next few people – Jeongin, Woojin and Minho. Jeongin squeezes against Hyunjin and joins in on the low murmuring of the recipe the two were doing, and Woojin heads straight for Chan. Minho sits down next to Felix.

It takes a couple minutes of awkward silence or awkward listening to the trio progressively get louder in their chant of the recipe for Changbin to arrive.

“Let’s get cooking.” Hyunjin says once Changbin steps through the door. Changbin sighs, but he disappears into the kitchen with Hyunjin and Seungmin.

“If your house burns down, I’m not taking the blame.” Chan mutters. Jisung pouts.

 

“Party games!” Jisung shouts once whatever Hyunjin, Seungmin and Changbin are cooking can be safely left alone. He says something in Korean that Felix has never heard before, but he’s assuming it’s not good from the way Chan groans.

Jisung just grins.

“Truth or dare,” Chan whispers to him, in English, once he’s finished complaining. Felix sighs. He probably should’ve been able to translate that himself.

“Seungmin,” Jisung says, rolling onto his stomach. “Truth!”

“I’m supposed to decide if I chose truth or dare,” Seungmin grumbles, but he gestures for Jisung to continue.

“Do you have a crush?”

“Sungie,” Chan says, laughing a little. “Stop trying to distract everyone from your own crush.”

Jisung puts on the fakest looking offended face Felix’s ever seen, and worm crawls over to Chan to hit his knee. Everyone else joins in on laughing, and Jisung huffs and crosses his arms.

“You’re supposed to be nice to me,” He moans. “It’s my birthday.”

“No, I don’t, Jisung.” Seungmin finally answers. “Hyunjin?”

The games continues for a while, and Felix sees more of Minho then he ever needs to see ever again. Everyone eventually stopped targeting Jisung, and moved on to trying to get Chan do the most embarrassing things they could think of.

“Felix!” Jeongin sings.

“Dare,” He says.

Today’s just full of words Felix doesn’t know. Jeongin thinks for a little, then blurts out a single word, seal clapping with laughter after he spits it out. Everyone else bursts into laughter too, while Felix just sits there, trying to signal to Chan he had no idea what was going on.

Chan finally realizes what he’s trying to do.

“Oh, uh. Act cutesy,” he says, in English. “Changbin’s good at it. Come on, Binnie.”

Changbin scowls. Felix doesn’t know Changbin that well, as he usually just talks to the younger members of Chan’s friendship groups, but he’s somewhat sure that Changbin’s the least likely one here to be able to act cutesy.

Felix was wrong.

He watches Changbin stand up, perform some cutesy little dance thing like it was natural, then sit back down with that same emo glare Felix had seen the first time he met the older boy. He looks back between Changbin and Chan.

“You want me to do that.” He says, in the most deadpan voice he can muster. Jeongin nods through a laugh, and Felix sighs.

“Or just something cute,” Seungmin says. He’s obviously been forced through this before. His laughter had cut off earliest and he was giving Felix an appreciated sympathetic smile. Felix lets out another sigh, raises his hands up to his head, and meows.

Wow. Jeongin can squeal loud. Like, really loud.

Felix truly is learning a lot today.

 

**Group chat: youre all snakes**

**Members: aussie aussie aussie, happy birthday!!!, the not fun one, mum, worldwide, pure, a child, minhoe, oi oi oi**

 

 **happy birthday!!!:** wait.

 **happy birthday!!!:** w a i t.

 **happy birthday!!!:** w w w w w a i t,

 

 **minhoe:** you good?

 

 **happy birthday!!!:** felix whats the time rn

 

 **oi oi oi:**?

 **oi oi oi:** its like one pm

 

 **happy birthday!!!:** felix whats todays date

 

 **oi oi oi:** september 15???

 

**happy birthday!!! changed _oi oi oi’s_ name to _happy birthday prt2!!!_**

**pure:** happy birthday felix!!!!

 

 **happy birthday!!!:** u little

 **happy birthday!!!:** not telling us abt ur birthday,,,,,

 **happy birthday!!!:** thinking i dont snoop thru chans phone,,,,,

 

 **aussie aussie aussie:** you what

 

 **happy birthday!!!:** everyone assemble at chans we got another birthday to do

 

 **aussie aussie aussie:** Jisung.

 **aussie aussie aussie:** You what.

 

 **happy birthday!!!:** sorry cant talk buying presents

 

“You cool with the whole impromptu birthday party thing?” Chan asks. Felix shrugs. He would’ve preferred to not have all seven people come over especially considering he saw them all yesterday, but he’d deal. Even if he made his own friends he’d still have to deal with Chan’s coming over a minimum of two days a week. Got to get used to them eventually.

They were nice anyway. He probably wouldn’t end up making new friends.

Someone started knocking excitedly on the front door. Felix motions for Chan to go get it.

It’s Jisung, not that either of them are surprised. He’s holding a box that looks suspiciously like a cake box, with his phone and wallet balanced on top. Felix stands up from the couch. Chan beats him to it; he steals Jisung’s phone, and throws it back to Felix.

“I bought you a cake,” Jisung moans as he heads to the kitchen.

The door knocks about a minute later, and just about everyone comes through. Seungmin even has a fruit platter with him.

Felix gives the phone back.

Everyone crowds around him and wishes him a happy birthday. He only gets a “Please tell us important dates” from everyone. Felix is grinning by the end of it.

Oh yeah. He doesn’t need new friends.  
  


Hyunjin and Seungmin end up joining Felix’s little group of friends. Yeah, he likes everyone Chan’s introduced to him enough, enough to call them friends, but Jisung and Jeongin just clicked with him. And now the same thing was happening with Hyunjin and Seungmin.

“It’s almost winter already.” Seungmin says, rubbing his hands together. It was. Felix wasn’t used to summer dropping off this quickly. The past few years in Sydney they had mild weather, and Felix had gotten used to his Melbourne friends complaining about the nice weather he had up in Sydney. Here, however, it would definitely end up being cold. Also snow would be coming soon, which Felix was kind of excited for.

“Are you going home for Christmas?” Chan asks, leaning against Jeongin to join the conversation. Felix nods. “Ah summer. I miss warm Christmas’s.”

Felix raises his hands up in a sort of prayer, and Chan joins him.

“A warm Christmas sounds weird.” Jeongin says.

“I’ve never had a cold one.” Felix says. He changes to English, mostly because he doesn’t know any Christmas-related vocabulary. “It’s just the normal thing over there. Everything Christmas over in Australia is summer based. Can’t wait to get my annual surf-boarding Santa t-shirt.”

Seungmin laughs.

“Six white boomers,” Chan sings quietly, and Felix laughs. “I should ask mum if we can go back to Australia for Christmas next year. I miss everything.”

Felix agrees. He wouldn’t say he was homesick, but he was a bit.

 

Mornings had gotten cold. It had gotten progressively harder to get Chan out of bed, and soon Felix followed. He ate breakfast with a blanket wrapped around him and didn’t change into his uniform until the last minute.

Today was a Sunday, so Felix could sleep in.

He didn’t. Body clocks were bad, especially when they adapted to the schedule you have to run on to be early to school. He groans, but sits up. He opens his windows, and he can feel his eyes bulging out of their sockets.

“It’s snowing.” Felix stays at the window for a couple more seconds, then runs off to Chan’s room. “Chris, Chris, Chris, it’s snowing!”

“It does that.” Chan mutters.

“It’s snowing,” He punctuates. He’s well aware he sounds like a child, but it was _snowing._ Chan sighs, but it pauses half-way through.

“You’ve never seen snow before.” Chan says, rubbing his hands over his face. “You’ve never gone down to the ski resort. This would be your first time seeing snow.”

“Yes.”

“Get some trakkies on.” Chan says, in English. Felix has a feeling there isn’t a good enough translation. “I’ll call the kids. Let’s go enjoy some snow.”

Felix whoops.

 

Jisung is first to arrive, all decked out in a giant beanie and the biggest, puffiest jacket Felix has ever seen. He grins through his scarf. Felix lets him in, and a more casually dressed Jeongin appears. Felix keeps the door open for a couple more seconds, and Seungmin and Hyunjin arrive together.

Felix pulls a beanie over his ears and puts on a pair of shoes, and waits with the four that just arrived for Chan to finish struggling to put a jacket on.

Chan finally gets the jacket on, and shoos them outside the door.

Snow is weird, Felix decides.

Jisung starts pressing some of it into a ball, wiggling his eyes at Felix. He laughs and ducks behind Jeongin. He knows how snowball fights work, even if he’s never had one. It was like a water fight, but without the need for sunscreen.

“Traitor,” He hears Jeongin whisper to him as the snowball hits him, and Felix laughs. Jisung joins in, and then grabs Hyunjin.

“Teams! I dibs Hyunjinnie!”

“I want Seungmin,” Felix says, and grabs Jeongin’s arm. Jisung pouts at the loss of Jeongin, but starts to roll another snowball.

“You’re on, Felix!”

Chan joins a little late, and ends up in the middle of their fight. Felix tries to convince his cousin to join his team – “We’re at a disadvantage, Channie-hyung, I’ve never even seen snow before,” he says, trying to use his best puppy-dog eyes, but Chan gives into Jisung.

 

Being able to cuddle with your friends in winter, under blankets, with a hot drink that was almost as good as milo would probably be Felix’s favourite part of winter so far. Jisung ends up being the clingiest person he knows, and snuggle into his side the second they sit down on the couch, and Chan, ends up on his other side.

Jisung, who seems to have very similar taste in everything with Felix, puts on some trashy looking game show Felix’s never seen before on. It’s some singing show, and everyone around Felix seems to know the answers to every question the show puts out.

He’s warm. Not sweaty, got-to-find-a-working-air-conditioner warm, but a soft, hazy kind of warm. The early morning might not have been a good idea, he realizes as he drifts off to sleep. At least it was comfortable sleeping like this.

 

The only thing is about befriending the younger people Chan’s friends with, is that they are never over.

It’s the first day of winter break, and all three of the senior students are with Chan. He wants to ask his aunt why Chan can literally always have his friends over, but he doesn’t. He needs to pack to go home. He leaves tomorrow.

He probably should’ve started packing sooner. He really should’ve done a lot of things sooner.

“It’ll be forty degrees when you land,” Chan says from the living room. “Maybe wear summer stuff to the airport? I’ll know you’ll freeze at first but think. Do you really want to deal with Sydney’s sun and jeans?”

“Are you leaving soon?” Woojin asks. Felix enters the living room. He nods.

“Tomorrow,” He sings, then regrets doing that.

“Have fun,” Minho says, from his blanket bundle. Instead of crowding around Chan’s laptop, which Changbin and Woojin are, he’s on the ground, on his phone, texting someone. “Bring some sun back here. It’s so hard to stretch in the cold.”

“I want something Christmassy.” Chan says. “I know you’re coming back next year and all, but all of my Aussie Christmas decorations died years ago. I need new ones.”

“You going to pay for those?” Felix asks, and laughs when Chan makes a face. “I got to get back to packing. I'll, uh, thanks for your support.”

Wow. Did that even make any sense?

“Fighting.” Minho mumbles as he leaves.

 

Chan was right. Wearing summer stuff on the plane was a brilliant idea. He still almost melted, even with the thinnest clothes that he had.

 

Felix had forgotten to bring winter clothes to come back in, however.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dont know how to link but heres my tumblr: @the-world-isnt-over-yet. thanks for all the love so far <333


	3. Year One - Part Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wowowow. so we finally get some development! 
> 
> also! i've figured out a posting schedule:
> 
> -there should be a chapter every sunday/monday australian time  
> \- if i have time, there will be chapters every thursday/friday australian time (uploaded the last chapter a day early, naughty naughty~~)
> 
> that's about all!! thanks for all the love, everyone! i'm so glad people are enjoying this !! <33

Chan, Jisung and Changbin were waiting at the gate. The clothes Felix had begged Chan to bring along with him were all bundled up in Changbin’s arms, and he runs over to them. He dumps the bags he had brought on the plane, grabs the clothes, and runs off to a line to a bathroom.

Once he’s in clothes a little more suited to the winter weather, he walks back to his friends. He greets them, and Chan pinches his cheeks.

“You’ve freckled,” He coos. Felix bats him away.

“Yeah, yeah. I forgot sunscreen.” Bad decision to admit that. Chan looks at him, then smiles evilly. He claps Felix on the back – upper shoulders, prime spot for sunburn – and Felix winces. “Yup, there’s a burn there. Thanks for reminding me, Chris.”

“How was Australia?” Jisung asks, picking up Felix’s backpack and passing it to him. They start to head off for baggage pickup.

“Warm.” He says. Jisung laughs a little.

 

**Group chat: youre all snakes**

**Members: aussie aussie aussie, happy birthday!!!, the not fun one, mum, worldwide, pure, a child, minhoe, happy birthday prt2!!!**

**happy birthday!!! changed their name to _ji ji ji_**

**ji ji ji changed _happy birthday prt2!!!’s_ name to _oi oi oi_**

****

**ji ji ji:** can we go out for bubble tea im thirsty

 

**minhoe:** go by yourself?

 

**ji ji ji:** why would i do that

 

So Felix gets dragged out of his very warm bed to go get cold drinks.

 

He’d like to say it was all worth it to see Jisung’s excited wow-Felix-actually-came-to-a-meet up face, but it wasn’t. He was cold.

“You can get hot drinks,” Jisung whines, as if he knows what Felix is thinking.

“Why would I get a hot drink?” Felix mutters. “We’re at a cold tea place. Might as well freeze even more.”

Changbin snorts from next to him.

“Chan,” He turns to face his cousin. Chan doesn’t move however, and he holds a hand up in a ‘stop’ gesture.

“I’m not ordering for you.” Chan says. Felix pouts, even though Chan can’t see him. Seungmin taps his shoulder, and he whips around to smile at him.

“I’m ordering for Hyunjin anyway. I’ll get yours.” Seungmin says. Felix hugs him, without thinking. Seungmin hugs back.

“You are a blessing to this world, Seungminnie,” he says in English.

“A blessing,” Seungmin repeats, but in Korean.

 

“Felix.” Chan says when they get back home. “I forgot something.”

Felix pulls his shoes off and walks into the living room to flop onto the couch. Chan follows him.

“Chan, I don’t care if you left your phone at the café. Buy a new one. You can get a job.” Felix mutters into one of the throw pillows. Chan hits his calf lightly. “Or if you left your wallet. You can get a new bus card. You know what you can do with that bus card? Catch the bus home.”

“No, no. we have exams soon.” Felix nods. He kind of knew about that. Chan’s and Woojin’s were all big and important as they needed a high score to get into a top university. He knew slightly less about Changbin’s, as he didn’t talk about them much, but apparently grade ten exams were important too. “Which means you have exams. Which, because you are not in an English class, means you won’t have any English on the exam papers.”

“Oh.” Felix rolls over onto his back.

“Are you- are you good with that? You can read, right?” Chan sounds a little anxious. Felix can read, thank-you-very-much. Reading is easier than speaking, anyway. He nods. “And uh, I think they’re cool if you have grammar mistakes – this year, at least – but it is timed. And if you take long to translate, uh-“

“Gotcha.” Felix says.

“Maybe we can ask for extensions. Or take home tests. They trust me. I’m not sure.” Chan sits down on the part of the couch Felix hasn’t taken up, and drums his fingers against Felix’s leg. “I just- I just want you to feel comfortable, you know? An exam as to whether you can stay at the school- I don’t know what tests the exchange students take. Maybe you’ll get something different. Maybe not.”

Chan sounds really anxious.

“Worry about your own exam,” Felix says. He curls his legs into himself so Chan can actually have a spot to sit. Chan doesn’t move. “I can talk. I know things. Let me talk to the teachers about it.”

 “I guess you have Hyunjin in your class.” Chan gives up, and slumps into the spot Felix cleared for him. “He can help you…”

“I’ll be fine.” He says, although he doesn’t believe that himself. Chan just grunts, and they sit in the silence until Felix’s aunt bursts through the door.

 

The teacher says something about no mercy and yes, Felix does need to take the same test as Hyunjin but of course, we’re not monsters, his grades will be accounted for the fact he doesn’t actually know the language all that well. Hyunjin gives him a shrug, and a mouthed ‘I tried?’.

“That went well.” Felix remarks as he leaves the teacher’s office with a thick work booklet of vocabulary and terms and grammar he needs to learn so he can understand the exams. “Please tell Chan I said something in that conversation. I told him I would sort it out.”

Hyunjin nods. A true friend, this one is.

“Let’s go.” Hyunjin leads him away from the locker bay, and more towards where Chan disappears to in the morning. They eventually come to an undercover sitting area, where Jeongin and Jisung are already sitting. “I asked Chan why you’re never here in the mornings. Apparently he didn’t tell you we meet up in the morning.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if he forgot.” Felix says as he sits down. He puts the work booklet on the only slightly dewy bench. He could probably survive if he lost a couple pages. Probably. On second thought, Felix picks the booklet up and puts it on his lap.

Chan and Minho arrive. Minho sits down, and Chan takes one look at Felix, and runs off. Minho laughs.

“It’s not about you, I think. He joined a council or something.” Minho says.

“Because he doesn’t have enough on his plate already.” Woojin mutters as he sits down. “Good to see you here, Felix. I was starting to think Chan just left you at home.”

Changbin shows up. He’s holding a coffee cup, and without anyone saying anything, he hands Jisung the cup. Jisung takes a long draught, and hands it back.

“I don’t trust you on coffee.” Felix says.

“None of us do.” Changbin says as he sits down as well. “I brave it because I’m technically not allowed to drink more than a standard sized cup of coffee. This is a grande.”

“It stunts your growth if you have too much.” Hyunjin explains, laughing. “Caffeine makes you short.”

Changbin sticks his tongue out at Hyunjin.

 

“Can I walk home by myself?” Felix asks Chan at lunch, as if Chan was his parent or something. Chan nods, even though he doesn’t really look like he’s paying attention, and Felix grins. “Thank you Channie-hyung,”

That gets his attention.

“What did I agree to? What?”

 

Felix always liked going home by himself. It was the main reason he had wanted to move up to high school as soon as possible – he’d no longer have to walk home with his sister, nor did he have to catch the early bus with the other sister. Felix didn’t love being alone, but sometimes you need time to reset and think.

So he walks home.

He knows the address – he has google maps open on his phone so he won’t get lost, even if he forgets the way Chan usually takes when they walk home together. He knows enough Korean to yell for help or call the police. He has a house key. He was fine. He could do this.

And it’s cold. Not snowing cold, unfortunately, but cold enough to have frost in the mornings and good walking weather in the afternoons.

He arrives home after everyone else.

He almost goes and grabs his study books from his room. Almost goes and sits next to Jisung, who still hasn’t noticed the door opening and shutting even though he’s the only one facing that way. But he doesn’t. He takes his shoes off as quietly as possible and goes into his room.

 

“Happy fourteenth!” Felix cheers when he arrives at the morning meeting spot. Jeongin covers his face with his hands, but Felix hears a soft ‘thank you.’ He pets Jeongin’s shoulder.

“Shame it fell on a school day,” Jisung says. “We’ll have to celebrate after school. Get excited Jeonginnie! I bought a cake!”

Jeongin grins, pulling his head out of his hands. Jisung mutters something about braces and pokes Jeongin’s cheeks.

 

Felix, as well as cute faces master Jeongin, convince Chan to catch the bus home. The whole group, all nine of them, take up an entire section of the front of the bus, and Felix gets to experience Jisung fighting for his right to sit alone. Jisung loses, and has to sit next to a senior student.

“Why is it always me that has to sit alone,” Jisung moans. Minho waves to the senior student, who gets up and swaps with Minho. Woojin is considerably less annoying about sitting next to a stranger. Felix pets Minho’s leg as he passes, congratulating him for the good decision.

 

Felix joins in on studying that day.

“For Jeongin,” he says.

It’s his first time actually studying with the group. They’re good to work with. Not too quiet but they don’t chatter, and it’s almost relaxing when Woojin reads his allotted text of the day out loud. He has a nice voice. Felix briefly thinks he wouldn’t mind studying like this again, and laughs at himself.

 

 

“Valentine’s Day,” Felix says in English. Chan nods. He did read that letter right.

Felix had gotten a letter slipped into his locker. It was all in Korean, and unfortunately and somewhat unsurprisingly, the person who had written it had the worst handwriting Felix and Chan had ever seen.

“Oh, what have you got there?” Jisung asks, grabbing for the letter as he sits down with his lunch. Felix leans back to avoid Jisung’s hands.

“Someone has a crush on Felix.” Chan says, and Jisung face drops in surprise. It keeps going however, and Jisung even lets out a slow ‘what…?’. Chan laughs, and shakes his head. “Too much ‘Sungie.”

Felix sits back up properly, believing the threat of Jisung stealing the letter was over. It was not. The letter is ripped out of his hands and is in Jisung’s before he can even speak.

“Dear Felix-“ Jisung bursts into laughter. “This is-Chan, read this please. I can’t- I really cannot read this.”

Jisung hands the letter to Chan. Felix makes a half-hearted attempt to grab at the piece of paper, but Chan deflected him off.

“Dear Felix-oppa,” Chan says, and Jisung laughs harder.

“Feli- Felix- _oppa,_ ” Jisung says through his cackling, trying to make his tone as sickly sweet as possible. “Tell me that’s as weird to you as it is to me. Gosh, some grade seven just writing this letter, thinking of her-“

“Oh my god.” Chan starts to laugh along with Jisung. Felix makes his break for it and gets his letter back from Chan.

“No, no,” Jisung says, still wheezing. “Read the rest of it, please, oh my god,”

“Sorry.” Felix says as everyone else arrives for lunch. “Language barrier.”

“You are no fun, Felix,” Jisung groans. “No fun.”

 

**Group chat: youre all snakes**

**Members: aussie aussie aussie, ji ji ji, the not fun one, mum, worldwide, pure, a child, minhoe, oi oi oi**

**the not fun one:** jisung i hate your name

 

**ji ji ji:** my last name ?? ;)

**ji ji ji:** you gonna propose or

**the not fun one changed _ji ji ji’s_ name to _shut tf up jisung_**

****

**shut tf up jisung:** thats not even original hyung

**shut tf up jisung:** I expected better from u

**shut tf up jisung:** d minus. see me after class

 

**worldwide changed _the not fun one’s_ name to _delinquent_**

****

“What’s white day?” Felix asks. He’s been trying to translate this letter ever since he had gotten it, but damn did this girl have horrible handwriting. Even Chan and Jisung had given up after a couple hours. “It says here…’looking forward to White Day’?”

“The opposite of Valentines,” Changbin says.

“Why would you look forward to-“

“Felix.” He jumps up from the couch to look at Chan. “Here on Valentines, the girls usually give boys gifts. White Day is the opposite of that.”

Felix pretends to understand.

 

“Two weeks until exams.” His teacher announces in class that morning.

 

He gets his booklet back that afternoon. Half of it is marked as wrong. He had vaguely knew that he had gotten it wrong – Korean had never been that easy to finish – but it still stings, a little. The teacher is one of the nicer ones and gives him a fresh booklet, and tells him to hand it in next week redone.

He had been considering catching the bus today, but he leaves to walk with Chan.

He had been considering staying out and studying with everyone else. It was fun when he stayed out for Jeongin’s birthday. But he can’t have fun right now. He needs to get this right. Once he gets home, he goes immediately to his room.

He goes through the marked booklet, trying to see where he went wrong.

He’s tired. Reading is so hard when you are tired.

Reading is so hard. He stands up, and walks to the door. He wants to open it, and ask for Chan’s help. He is stressed, Felix says to himself. Don’t make it worse by letting him know you’ll struggle on the exam. Someone lets out a dolphin-like squeal, and Felix is reminded that Chan also has friends.

He curls up by the end of his bed, so he doesn’t have to see his desk.

He could call for Chan. Pretend he wants a drink or-

He’s crying.

He doesn’t know what to say or how to say it or where he went wrong and he’s just tired. Nothing makes sense.

The door opens, and Felix hisses a “Go away,” in English.

The door closes.

It opens again, and Felix winces at the sound of someone entering. They sit next to him, and press a cold glass onto his hand. He takes the glass, and looks up to see Changbin. He makes a motion for Felix to drink and he does.

“I’m sorry,” He says, and he’s almost certainly sure it’s in English. Was Changbin one of the fluent ones? Did it really matter anymore? Changbin huffs. “I just- I can’t-“

“Don’t talk.” Changbin says. He wraps an arm around Felix’s shoulders, and squeezes his arm. He doesn’t say anything more. Felix rests his head against Changbin, and he doesn’t complain.

Felix opens his mouth to say maybe something like “I’m sorry.” But in a language Changbin speaks, or maybe a “Huh. Expected the breakdown to happen sooner,” or a “How did you know I was having a breakdown?” or just something so he doesn’t feel so bad. No words come out, like his voice box is taking orders from the older boy.

“Thanks,” He manages to choke out once the tears stop.

“You good?” Changbin asks. Felix nods. “”Come on. I’ll help you. Get up.”

“Thank you.” He says again, and he knows for sure that’s in Korean because he can see Changbin smile. “Thank you. Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Changbin stands up, and waves Felix’s somewhat apology off. He holds a hand out for Felix to take. “What are you caught up in?”

 

**Group chat: OG**

**members: father, mother, emocean, shut tf up jisung, worldwide, changbin’s favourite, minhoe, everyone’s favourite**

 

**emoceon:** chan

 

**father:** yes

 

**emocean:** what kind of hot drink does felix like

 

**father:** uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

**father:** idk ill ask him

**father:** he likes hot chocolate with hazelnut syrup

**father:** hes real suspicious binnie whyd you need to know that

 

**emocean:** dont u dare tell him i asked

 

“Hey.” Changbin is holding two cups this morning. He passes one to Jisung, who seems to practically inhale half of it, and hands the other to Felix. He doesn’t take it. He lets Changbin press it into his hands and waits for an explanation. “For you. Hot chocolate with hazelnut.”

He takes the cup.

“Thanks.” He hate the feeling of not knowing what to say, but it isn’t too bad like this. He’s more speechless rather than wordless. “Is-is that why Chan asked me that question last night?”

Changbin nods, and takes his own drink off Jisung.

“Jisungie, you’ve drunk the rest of it,” Changbin says, pouting. Felix laughs, and takes a sip of the drink. He doesn’t think he’s ever liked hot chocolate this much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i own a tumblr but not enough skill to be able to tag myself. it's @the-world-isn't-over-yet.
> 
> thanks for reading!!


	4. Year One, Part Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!!  
> i'm sorry this took so long to get out >.< it feels like forever since i've posted...
> 
> but that's ok! it's here now, (and slightly smaller than i wanted it to be) but we've finally finished year one! woohoo!
> 
> glad to hear that people are enjoying this! <33

**Group chat: youre all snakes**

**Members: aussie aussie aussie, shut tf up jisung, delinquent, mum, worldwide, pure, a child, minhoe, oi oi oi**

**shut tf up jisung:** to take our minds off upcoming exams/the complete and utter deicidal of how chan/woojins/changbins life will go for the rest of their time on this earth we’re going out to the shopping centre today

 

 **minhoe:** wow ok my exams dont even get a mention?

 

 **aussie aussie aussie:** no hes right our exams are better than yours

 

 **minhoe:**..

 **minhoe:** better or more stressful

 

 **aussie aussie aussie:** theres a difference

 

Felix is good at maths.

He was good at financial maths back in Australia.

Felix was not good at remembering how much the won was worth. He stares blankly at the price tag. If it was in dollars, it’d probably be something for a millionaire. Shame that wasn’t how won worked. Felix had also forgotten the conversion rate, meaning he couldn’t even do mental maths.

Chan hands him his phone.

It’s the google conversion app.

Right. That was thing that existed and worked.

 

“Good luck.” Hyunjin says that morning.

“I’ll be fine,” Felix grumbles. He’d already gotten an almost lecture from Chan about not feeling bad if he didn’t get the same sort of marks as he had gotten in Australia. He smiles though, and pats Hyunjin’s hand in thanks.

 

“How’d you go?” He asks Jeongin. The younger had been chewing his nails for the entire lunch break. He kind of wants to remind him that results won’t come out for at least another few weeks, but he stays silent. Jeongin shrugs.

“I think I did well,” Jisung replies. “Forgot some of the formulas, however.”

Jeongin nods in agreement.

“My maths probably went horribly,” Jeongin moans.

“I bet it went great.” Felix says, quite confidently. “I bet you’ll get an academic award one of these days, Jeongin-ah.”

“Thanks hyung,” Jeongin says, the words muffled as he shoves his face into the crook of his arm. Felix runs his hands through the top of Jeongin’s hair, in a way he hopes is comforting. “You probably did well. Too. I mean, I know you did well.”

“Yeah.” It wasn’t too bad. It could’ve gone better. He knows what he needs to fix – translating speed, not that that’s a surprise – but he’s pretty sure he’ll be okay with the mark he gets. “Yeah. I did alright.”

 

“None of you come over tonight.” Chan says when they all meet up for lunch. “My mum says you all come over too often. She says you ‘need to bond with your own families.’ Also, to stop eating all the snacks.”

“Yeah Chris,” Felix says, not looking up from Jisung’s phone, which the two of them are looking through to find a selfie Jisung will post later. Jisung had some shocking photos of himself, as well as some incredibly good looking ones of a younger Chan. “Stop eating all the snacks.”

“Respect,” Chan hisses, and Felix giggles.

 

The results for the grade twelves come out a week later.

 

“Hey Woojin,” He hears Chan say through the door. He sounds a little choked up. Felix doesn’t want to intrude, but he holds the doorknob and leans against the door so he can enter fast if Chan ends up crying. “How did you go? Are you going to get in?”

Because Chan is smart, Woojin is not on speaker phone.

“You did so well!” He can almost see the smile in Chan’s voice. “Me? I did…okay. I’ll be fine.”

Ah.

“No, no, no! I’m fine, really! Highest mark in our class, Woojinnie.” What an idiot. He just wants praise. Felix backs away from Chan’s room. He’ll say congratulations to him later.

 

Minho does well too.

For some reason, the junior school’s marks come out before the grade ten’s, so Changbin is stuck waiting for a couple days for his results. Felix does better than expected. Chan says, of course, that his reasonably high mark _was_ expected, but Felix knows the truth.

“Guess I’ll be a senior with you next term, Minho-hyung,” Changbin says quite casually at lunch the day after Felix gets his results with the other grade nines. Minho pauses, and turns to Changbin with a smile.

“No entering an outside college?” Jisung asks.

“You’re stuck with me.” Changbin responds. Jisung cheers.

 

**Group chat: youre all snakes**

**Members: aussie aussie aussie, shut tf up jisung, delinquent, mum, worldwide, pure, a child, minhoe, oi oi oi**

**shut tf up jisung changed the group chat’s name to _summer :D_**

**worldwide change their name to _sweet summer child_**

****

**delinquent:** your birthday isn’t in summer

 

 **sweet summer child:**..

 **sweet summer child:** it is in australia

 

 **aussie aussie aussie:** no its not

 

**sweet summer child change their name to _the sun itself_**

****

**mum:** we’re ignoring seungmin here, are we

 

**the sun itself change their name to _a smile brighter than the sun_**

**pure:** hyunjinnie

 **pure:** normally i’d agree with you but we own a whole jeongin in this chat

**a smile brighter than the sun:** let me have this 1 thing

 **a smile brighter than the sun:** but u right u right

 

**a smile brighter than the sun changed _a child’s_ name to _the real sun_**

 

 

**Private chat: leave me alone**

**Members : jisungie, delinquent**

**jisungie:** changbinnie hyung

 

 **delinquent:** what do you want

 

 **jisungie:** I never said I wanted anything :( maybe I just wanna talk

 

 **delinquent:** what do you want

 

 **jisungie:** take care of my sister for a little???? felix was supposed to be helping me but

 

 **delinquent:** he didn’t want to deal with your family understandable

 **delinquent:** ill help you whatever your sisters cute

 

 **jisungie:** nah boi its me who bailed

 **jisungie:** snagged myself a date

 

 **delinquent:** sigh

 **delinquent:** ill be over soon

 

“Hey Felix.” Jisung says, as he opens the front door. He’s obviously half way through some stage in his skin care, as there was a white mask of some cream covering half his face. He gestures vaguely to where Felix knows the living room is. “I- find Haeun, would you? She ran away when I said I was going out.”

“I’ve never met your sister,” Felix mutters.

“She’s the only five year old in the house.” Jisung remarks. “I got to finish getting ready.”

Just as Jisung leaves to do whatever he was doing before Felix came, Haeun sticks her head out from the kitchen. She sticks her tongue out at them both, and sprints past Felix into the hall, presumably where her bedroom is.

“There’s your sister.” Felix says.

“Wow, Felix. Very helpful, Felix.” Jisung sighs. “Let me wash this stuff off and I’ll introduce you to her before hyung arrives and I have to go.”

 

“Ok, Haeun-ah,” Jisung says. He bends down and picks her up. Jisung grabs her wrist and somewhat forces her to wave at Felix. “This is Felix. He’ll be taking care of you, okay? Just until I get home. That’s okay with you, isn’t it, Haeun?”

She pouts.

“Hi,” Felix bends a little so he’s in line with Haeun’s line of sight. Even sitting up on Jisung’s hips she’s small. _She’s only five,_ he thinks. _Kids are short._ This kid was really short, however. “Hi, Haeun. I’m Felix.”

“I know.” She mumbles.

“Binnie-oppa will be here soon,” Jisung says, in the most sickeningly sweet tone Felix has ever heard him speak in. “I’ll put you down. Let Felix play with you until he gets here?”

The pout doesn’t go away, but she nods. Jisung sighs out something that sounds a little like relief. He drops his sister, and pushes her gently towards Felix. The front door knocks, and Jisung lets out another deep sigh. He runs off to open it.

“Read me something.” Haeun says. Then she adds, “Please.”

“Pick a book.” Felix says, and he sits down. Haeun waddles over to her little bookshelf and starts scanning it for books. Felix can hear Jisung arrive back in the bedroom, as the hall wasn’t carpeted, but he doesn’t turn around to look at him.

“When’s Minho getting here? I want to ask him something.” Changbin asks, as he sits down next to Felix. Oh. Binnie-oppa. Changbin. Right. Jisung chokes. Haeun finally chooses a book, and hands it to Felix. She sits in Changbin’s lap. The pout is completely gone now.

“Well- number one, you have a phone, you have Minho’s number. Stop talking through me. And uh, two? Why would Minho be here? I asked you and Felix to- oh.” Jisung’s train of thought stops. Changbin snickers. “It’s not- no! I’m going out with a girl, thank you very much.”

Changbin laughs a little harder.

“Shut up, hyung,” Jisung mutters. He leans over Changbin to ruffle his sister’s hair, then stands back up. “I’m not going to update you now. You can suffer in silence about not knowing how good this date will be.”

“Yeah, because you texting me in the middle of a date indicates it’s a good one.” Changbin laughs. Felix shuffles a little closer to him, so when he opens the book Haeun will be able to see it. “Go, leave. The sooner you go the less likely it is we have to feed your little demon.”

“You love her!” Jisung shouts as he jogs away. Changbin shakes his head.

 

 “Would you look at that?” Changbin mutters. He’s sitting on the couch, Haeun fast asleep on his lap. Felix crawls up to where the couch is, abandoning the colouring he promised Haeun he’d finish. Changbin positions his phone so Felix could see the lockscreen. No notifications except for one – a text from Jisung. “Didn’t he say he was going to not text me?”

Haeun groans and rolls over half way through Changbin’s sentence. He quietens.

Changbin unlocks his phone, and Felix laughs a little at the text.

 

**Private chat: leave me alone**

**Members: jisungie, delinquent**

**jisungie:**..from the way this is going, i think asking to split the payment is a no-no

 

Changbin snorts.

He moves his phone away to text something back to Jisung. Felix looks over to the half-finished picture, and stands up to sit next to Changbin on the couch. He tries not to disturb the little girl as he leans against Changbin’s shoulder. She’s pretty much splayed herself across his lap at this point.

“If you go to sleep, Felix, I will take your share of whatever Jisung is using to repay us,” Changbin hisses. Felix waves his hand absentmindedly. It’d probably be food. Felix could definitely get food out of Chan if he really had to.

“I’m not that tired, hyung.” Felix replies. He was, a little. He wasn’t staying up as late as he was during the school year to study, but his sleep schedule still looked a bit Chan-like.

He falls asleep.

 

He’s awakened by a small child clambering all over him. Felix groans a little.

“Hey Felix.” Jisung says. He lifts Haeun off him. “Thanks for…helping Changbin take care of her.”

“I did a little,” Felix says as he sits up and opens his eyes. Jisung “uh-huh”s him ad they both chuckle. “Has Changbin already left?”

“Yeah. You and Haeun have been sleeping together for about half an hour.” Jisung says. “It was kind of cute. I swear I didn’t take photos for blackmail. Or at least. Not blackmail for you.”

“Right.” Felix rubs his eyes. He wasn’t going to ask. “I should- I’m going to call Chan and get him to pick me up. Thanks for uh, letting me sleep, I guess.”

“No worries!” Jisung says cheerfully. “If you tell Chan you know who my crush is I’m never speaking to you again!”

“Gotcha,” Felix says, in English. He’s not sure how else to respond to that.

 

**Group chat: summer :D**

**Members: aussie aussie aussie, shut tf up jisung, delinquent, mum, a smile brighter than the sun, pure, the real sun, minhoe, oi oi oi**

**shut tf up jisung changed their name to _jisungie_**

****

**jisungie:** i was tired of ur slander

 

 **minhoe:** idk it gets easier to live with the longer it goes on

 

**jisungie changed _minhoe’s_ name to _the better lee_**

**the better lee:** wow thanks

 

 **jisungie:** <3

 

“Chan.” Felix says. “Why is Jisung outside our house?”

It’s only been a couple of days since Felix went over to help Jisung with his sister. Which meant Jisung had seen Chan only a couple days ago.

“Oh. He and Changbin are staying over for a couple of days.” Chan explains as he walks to the front door.

“A couple days.” Felix repeats. “As in. Multiple nights?”

“Yep. Hey Jisung.” Jisung enters, and beams at Felix. Felix waves.

“Your mother agreed to have the two kids over that eat all of her food?” Felix asks. Jisung sticks his tongue out. Felix can see the family resemblance between Haeun and Jisung now.

“No.” Chan says, and smiles. “She…she’ll be fine with it. Jisung brought snacks, didn’t you?”

“I-“ Jisung shrugs. “I have money to buy snacks.”

“What was the one condition I told you about coming over, ‘Sungie?” Chan says, and laughs a little. “Whatever. At least it’s not me paying for them.”

“Not a lot of money, mind you.”

 

“Why’d you come over?” Felix asks, when Jisung has taken a break from examining the four words he’s written in his notebook. “School starts again soon, doesn’t it? You couldn’t wait for another week to stay over after class?”

“We want to get into writing songs.” Jisung mutters.

Felix can see everyone’s notebooks from where he is sitting. No one has written much. In fact, Jisung has written the most out of the three.

“Going well.” Felix remarks.

“Shut up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you want, tag me (on tumblr) in pictures of sk smiling here @the-world-isnt-over-yet


	5. Year Two, Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooops we're a touch late !! 
> 
> apologies. really, i am sorry. but it's here! its short but.... the interactions are cute?? sorry again <33

There’s a small notebook left on the couch. It looks like the one either Jisung or Changbin were using while they were trying to write ideas. It’s been left open to a page. Felix goes to pick it up, stops – this could be personal. He probably shouldn’t look at it. – and picks it up anyway.

_Laughs too big for his body_

Is the only thing written.

“Chan!” Felix calls. He snaps the notebook shut. “I think Jisung left his notebook.”

Chan jogs into the living room. He takes the notebook, opens it to the first page and hums.

“It’s Changbin’s.” Chan says. “School’s soon. I probably won’t get the chance it give it to him. Throw it with your school stuff and give it back to him on the first day?”

Felix nods and takes the notebook back.

 

“I’m seventeen now.” Changbin says. He dips his head in thanks when Felix passes the notebook over. Jisung reaches his hands out for the coffee cup he was holding, but Changbin doesn’t hand it over. “Does that mean I can drink this whole thing of coffee now?”

“No,” Hyunjin says. “The age runs from 12-17 for the caffeine limit. Still too young, hyung.”

“Brat.” Changbin mutters. “Felix, do you like coffee?”

“No. When was your birthday?” Changbin hadn’t actually mentioned when his birthday was yet. And neither had Chan or anyone else.

“Yesterday. I don’t want gifts. Seungmin, do you like coffee?” Seungmin nods and Changbin passes the cup over. Jisung pouts.

 

**Private chat: why am i related to you**

**Members: Felix, Chan**

**Felix:** chan what should I get changbin for his birthday that you didnt tell me about

 

 **Chan:** idk

 **Chan:** oh yeah and changbins birthday was yesterday

 

 **Felix:** you see that chat title

 **Felix:** its how i feel rn

 

 **Chan:** love you

 **Chan:** he likes coffee

 **Chan:** and pokemon

 

 **Felix:** <3

 

 **Chan:** <3

 

 

Changbin takes one look at the coffee flask, and pushes it back towards Felix.

“I said no gifts.” Changbin says, although he’s smiling a little. Felix pouts, and Jisung jokingly joins in, trying to get Changbin to accept the damn flask. Felix spent three hours yesterday trying to find a pokemon themed one, so Changbin better take it.

“Oh but hyung,” Jisung says, after Changbin has pushed the flask away for the tenth time. “Felix is just thinking of the environment! You know, buying a non-reusable cup everyday creates so much waste. He’s just being considerate.”

Felix pets Jisung’s back in thanks.

Changbin sighs heavily, but he takes the flask when Felix hands it over again.

“For the environment.” Changbin clarifies, but he is grinning now. “Thanks, Felix.”

 

**Group chat: summer :D**

**Members: aussie aussie aussie, jisungie, delinquent, mum, a smile brighter than the sun, pure, the real sun, the better lee, oi oi oi**

 

**jisungie changed the group chat name to _conspiracy_**

****

**jisungie:** theory

 **jisungie:** changbin has a crush

 **jisungie:** …

 **jisungie:** ……

 **jisungie:** this is the wrong gc

 

 **delinquent:** im never helping you with your sister ever again

 

 **jisungie:** that’s fair

 

**Group chat: OG**

**members: father, mother, emocean, shut tf up jisung, worldwide, changbin’s favourite, minhoe, everyone’s favourite**

**shut tf up jisung:** CHANGBIN IM SORRY

 

 **emocean:** all good

 **emocean:** although you’ve now been demoted to Worst Friend Ever

 

 **shut tf up jisung:** :(

 

 **father:** its not that bad

 **father:** he didn’t say his name on the group chat

 

 **emocean:** i mean yeah i guess

 

 **father:** but also

 **father:** hyunjinnie say it for me hes least likely to threaten to hurt u

 

 **worldwide:** you got exposed lmaoooo

 

“You should join us for writing songs,” Jisung says one afternoon, during their quick snack break that they had put between the group homework session and the song writing time. “You’re always here-“

“I live here,” Felix interrupts. Chan snorts.

“You could correct our English,” Jisung continues.

“Chan is a native English speaker.” Felix says. Hyunjin, who hasn’t left quite yet, laughs from the chair he’s curled up in. Jisung stares at Chan, and narrows his eyes as if Chan had done something wrong.

“Felix can beatbox,” Chan says after he finishes the staring contest with Jisung. Felix sighs.

“Really?” Jisung springs up.  

“I’m not ever doing that for you.” Felix says, and stands up to throw his rubbish out. Jisung ‘hmph’s and slumps back over his workbooks.

“No fun,” Jisung groans.

Felix doesn’t even know what he would write if he joined the song writing trio. They didn’t even have a clue what to write either, considering what Felix had snuck peeks at for the last week or so.

 

Felix has been deemed fluent enough to receive the same homework as Hyunjin. Which, is a good thing, yes, but also Felix never wants to see a worksheet ever again in his life. He pulls an absolute mountain of paper out of his locker, and Jeongin, who was nice enough to wait by Felix’s locker before he headed to the bus, bursts out in laughter.

“You’ll be in my position next year,” Felix grumbles, and Jeongin keeps laughing.

“Oh but miss,” Jeongin puts on the cutesy voice he uses when he wants something out of someone. Felix isn’t surprised that it works. He’d probably give Jeongin anything he wanted. “We can’t afford a computer for home. I’m afraid I can’t do this…no, I don’t have access to the library either. I’m so sorry.”

 “You’re good.” Felix comments as he watches Jeongin act out the little scene. “You should do acting classes.”

Jeongin beams.

“But you do have a computer, right? Or at least a printer? I’ve seen you bring printed out stuff before.” Felix asks, as he shoves the last of the paper into his school bag.

“Shh.” Jeongin giggles. Felix laughs too.

 

“We should’ve kept Chan back a grade.” Jisung mutters as they get on the bus. There was only the seven of them in high school now, so now when Felix caught the bus with others someone had to sit next to a stranger.

“Why Chan?” Felix sits next to Minho, who’s already pulled out his textbooks and was reading through them.

Jisung shrugs.

“I feel like he’d be the most willing to stay back.” Jisung says, then looks to Felix. “But he did the dobby thing, didn’t he?”

“No comment.” Felix replies, but he and Jisung break out into soft chuckles.

 

It’s getting colder again. Which Felix is fine with. He enjoyed snow last year. He liked the whole temperature difference from Korea to Christmas in Australia.

The thing is, he’s getting sick.

He hacks out what feels like half his lungs, and the teacher gives him the fifth weird please-go-to-the-doctor he’s received today. Really, he would, but coughs die down easily with him. (Or, they should. This cough seemed to be the exception)

Felix has not learned the Korean word for cough lollies yet.

Hyunjin, who’s sort of watching him amusedly from the other side of the room, starts to crack up as Felix tries to mime to the person next to him to ask for a cough lolly.

“Cough,” he finally manages to remember, and gestures to around his throat, and finally, the person next to him realizes what he’s talking about. Probably out of the context of Felix killing his throat every three seconds, but he takes it as a win. The person hands over something, and Felix quietly thanks him.

He manages to finish the lesson without dying.

“Cough drops.” Hyunjin says as they leave.

“Cough drops.” Felix repeats. “They’re called uh, sweets in Australia. Lollies. Probably because they’re mostly sugar but- you know.”

“Do you eat them as sweets?” Hyunjin asks.

“Sometimes.” Felix laughs – _ouch._ Throat’s still sore, Felix – at Hyunjin’s disgusted expression. “Cheaper than actual sweets sometimes. I told you, they’re pure sugar. They’re not that bad!”

Hyunjin keeps the grossed out expression until they reach their lockers.

 

“Stay home tomorrow,” Jisung says as Felix breaks into coughing again. Changbin mutters an agreement, but Felix waves them off.

“I’ll be fine,” he shakes his hand at them. “Not dead yet.”

“Truly, related to Chan.” Minho says, and slaps Felix’s back. “Stay home tomorrow. Get some rest. Sleep it off or don’t. You’ll get the rest of us sick if you stay at school.”

“You can deal with it,” Felix hisses, but he nods anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sometimes i write about how this fic is going here - @the-world-isnt-over-yet under the tag #auggie's bad fics alert.
> 
> thank you for reading !! <3


	6. Year Two, Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> long time, no see.
> 
> quick update from my end: i've changed the uploading schedule. the new chapter will now be out every two weeks, on a sunday or monday australian time. thank you for understanding.
> 
> ok but now for happy thoughts: this fic just hit 2k!! ily all of you!!! really. your comments and your kudos and you just looking at this makes me so so happy.

“Shh,” Felix hears as he walks into the living room. He stops, and Jisung crashes into his back. Woojin is smiling at the two of them, Chan curled up in his arms, asleep. Woojin waves a little, and rest his head against Chan’s and closes his eyes as well. Felix backs out slowly, pulling Jisung with him.

“Let’s, uh, study in my room today,” Felix says to everyone who had been waiting by the door. There was definitely not enough room for seven teenage boys in there. Everyone files in, staying quiet as if they knew what was in the living room. Sure enough, all of them barely fit. Hyunjin mutters something about no room for studying and Felix gets an idea. He grabs his laptop. “Movie instead?”

Jeongin cheers.

Felix lets Minho and Jisung argue over what movie to watch as he sets the laptop up roughly in the middle of his room. They eventually decide, and Jisung takes over, going to get the cd and running the player.

Hyunjin chucks his books into the corner near Felix’s wardrobe, and everyone follows.

“I have a desk,” he mutters, but puts his bag there as well. He vaguely realizes that he’s put the laptop in a place where they’d all have to squish together to see the screen, and goes to move it. Jisung pulls him back. He ends up in some giant cuddle pile consuming just about everyone except for Changbin and Jeongin.

The movie starts. Felix isn’t quite sure what happened during the movie, except for the fact Changbin and Jeongin somehow ended up in the cuddle pile as well.

 

They end up watching two movies, and Felix shoos everyone out and home after. The third movie they had been planning on was a horror movie, and Felix would never be up to exposing himself as a complete and utter wimp.

He goes to put his bag at his desk, and find the notebook Changbin had left here before. He kind of wanted to see if the page he had snuck a look at had been updated, but he doesn’t open it. He wasn’t that much of a snoop. He puts it in his school bag, and goes to get a snack from the kitchen.

Chan’s awake. He can hear him groaning.

“Morning, sleeping beauty,” he says in English when he hears someone’s footsteps behind him. Chan hits him softly. “Sorry, sorry. Evening, sleeping ugly.”

Chan laughs.

 

Changbin passes him the coffee flask Felix had gotten him when he hands the notebook back over. He takes a sip, wrinkling his nose until he can actually taste what was in the flask. It isn’t coffee. It’s hot chocolate, although not with hazelnut. Caramel? Felix takes another sip.

“Thanks.” He says.

“Thank you. I keep forgetting this thing,” Changbin holds the notebook up and shakes it slightly, and laughs a little awkwardly. “You can uh, have the entire thing if you want.”

He gives the flask back and shakes his head.

“Just share it,” Hyunjin says, not even looking up from where he was trying to break into Minho’s phone. Minho had somehow not noticed yet. “I can tell the ‘no, _you_ hang up’ conversation is about to occur.”

“Brat.” Changbin says, and sits down. Felix sits opposite of him, and Changbin puts the flask directly in between them.

 

**Group chat: conspiracy**

**Members: aussie aussie aussie, jisungie, delinquent, mum, a smile brighter than the sun, pure, the real sun, the better lee, oi oi oi**

**jisungie:** @felix we know ur birthday this year so theres no hiding

 **jisungie:** so do u wanna have a joint party?

 **jisungie:** itd probably save time idk

 

 **a smile brighter than the sun:** you could ask him in a private chat so i don’t get in trouble for my phone going off in the middle of class

 

 **jisungie:** turn the notification sound off you actual grandfather

 **jisungie:** and you need to know this !! you gotta prepare for either two parties or one

 

 **oi oi oi:** i wasn’t planning on a party but ok

 

 **a smile brighter than the sun:** you know im not going to turn it off shut up

 

“Sweet sixteen!” Jisung greets him, holding paper crowns, like the ones you get from Christmas crackers. Felix takes the flimsy thing Jisung passes him, and puts it on. The side of it immediately rips to halfway. “It’s because you need a haircut, Felix. I’m not giving you a new one if it breaks.”

Felix shakes his head, but steps aside so Jisung can put the next paper crown on Minho, who had been standing behind him.

Minho’s fits him much better than Felix’s did. Minho pets his shoulder, and leaves to go inside. Felix stays with Jisung, as even though he has been to Jisung’s house multiple times, he’s still not confident in where everything is. Also, he wants to put a crown on someone too.

He gets to crown Jeongin, who rips the paper also.

Once Seungmin arrives, Jisung closes the door. Felix had thought he had gotten here early. Obviously not. He follows Jisung to the living room. Sure enough, everyone who he had not seen come through the door was sitting down in there.

Chan claps three times and they all burst into singing happy birthday. Felix covers his face with his hands.

“Thank you,” He says once they finish singing. Jisung repeats what he said, and jumps to sit down next to Hyunjin. He beckons for Felix to sit down also, and he does. Chan starts pulling presents out from somewhere behind him, and starts some sort of pass-the-parcel thing to get them around to Felix and Jisung.

 

Chan applauds the new pile of plushies Felix had gotten. The stack of them on his bed was almost as high as the bed itself.

“Successful birthday,” Chan says, and helps Felix stack the pile at the end of his bed. “I knew you used to have teddies like these back in Australia. Thought you might be homesick.”

“Not…” Felix pauses. “No. Not really. Almost feels like home here, it does.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've had a name change! go check me out on tumblr @felixtagram, and the rare updates on how this fic & others are going check this tag out - #auggie's bad fics alert.
> 
> thank you for getting this far. i love you all.


	7. Year Two, Part Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is...a little too short. but whatever!

 

**Group chat: conspiracy**

**Members: aussie aussie aussie, jisungie, delinquent, mum, a smile brighter than the sun, pure, the real sun, the better lee, oi oi oi**

**jisungie:** squad lets assemble @ chans

 

 **delinquent:** never call us a ‘squad’ again thanks

 

 **jisungie:** ….christmas bonding?

 

 **delinquent:** oh

 **delinquent:** if that’s the case

 **delinquent:** then squad lets assemble at chans!

 

 **aussie aussie aussie:** did i agree to this

 

 **the better lee:** you don’t need to

 

Jisung and Hyunjin show up with a giant box full of decorations. Felix lets them in, to Chan’s quiet disagreement.

Everyone else shows up in the next ten minutes, all carrying their own decorations to pitch in. Seungmin has the Santa sculpture he got for his birthday. Changbin has fairy lights. Jeongin has candy canes, which Felix is pretty sure won’t last November, let alone until Christmas.

“Are you staying this Christmas?” Changbin asks as they watch Chan try to wrestle a tinsel monster (Jisung) away from decorating his bedroom.

“No.” Felix says. Changbin nods.

“Know when you’re leaving?”

“After the last day of school.”

“We’ll have to give out presents earlier. I don’t think we got you anything last year,” Changbin picks up a bauble at his feet and throws it at the back of Hyunjin’s head, who’s helping Woojin and Jeongin set up the fake tree.

“We should help.” Felix says, but he doesn’t move. He kind of likes just watching everyone busy about.

“Oh yeah, definitely.” Changbin agrees. “Want to bake something?”

“I can’t bake.” Felix responds, but grins. Changbin smiles as well.

“Don’t worry. I know how to bake.” Changbin says as he leads Felix to the kitchen.

 

 

Changbin does not know how to bake.

 

**Group chat: conspiracy**

**Members: aussie aussie aussie, jisungie, delinquent, mum, a smile brighter than the sun, pure, the real sun, the better lee, oi oi oi**

**aussie aussie aussie:** everyone say goodbye to felix hes gonna be gone until like jan 7

 

 **the real sun:** bye hyung!!

 

 **jisungie:** can you buy us souvenirs

 

 **oi oi oi:** you got a spare $40 for a tiny ass plushie

 **jisungie:** ok so no souvenirs ig

 

 

“Cold.” He mutters as he grabs the oversized jacket from Chan. “It’s bloody cold.”

 

“Ice-cream?” He hears Hyunjin ask Seungmin as he approaches the two. Felix doesn’t hear or see Seungmin’s answer, as the other hides behind his locker door. Hyunjin turns to face him as he arrives in front of the pair’s lockers.

“We can’t come over tonight.” Hyunjin says, smiling apologetically.

“All good. Chan’s kicked us all out for date night or something, so you couldn’t have come over anyway.” Felix holds up his phone so the two could see Chan’s vaguely threatening message about not coming home before eight if he wanted to be on his cousin’s good side. Seungmin chuckles.

Jisung appears out of nowhere, sticking his head over Seungmin’s shoulder to read the message. 

“Oh! If you can’t go home, you can hang with me.” Jisung says, and throws a packet of lollies at Hyunjin’s chest, who bounces it around for a little before fully catching it.

“Like, at your place?” Felix asks as the four of them start to head off to the cafeteria. 

“Nah. I’m staying at Changbin’s tonight. But he won’t care if you come over.” Jisung replies. “You could probably stay overnight as well. We could have a sleepover!”

“I don’t have clothes.” Jisung waves him off.

“Changbin won’t care, I said. I’ll ask him. Believe me.” Jisung skips ahead of them to the table where Minho and Changbin were already sitting. The trio left walked a little faster, just to catch what Changbin would say. “Changbinnie-hyung,”

“What do you want?” Changbin says, without looking up from the book he was reading. Jisung still tries the puppy-dog eyes, even though Changbin can’t see them.

“Can Felix stay over with me?”

“Jisung-“ Changbin looks up to glare at Jisung, then raises his head up a little more to look directly into Felix’s eyes. “Oh, whatever. You’re paying for his bus ticket.”

Jisung whoops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi. i have a tumblr blog. it's @felixtagram. talk to me!


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